Looks like the mass media is making a big deal of the fact that new iPhone (and the new iPhone OS 4.0) will support multitasking… They either are technically challenged or too superficial (probably both). As it stands now, iPhone OS 3.1.2 is multitasking. In fact, it has been multitasking since the very conception of the iPhone OS. And so has every mobile OS from the times of Palm and Handspring.

To prove it, here is the list of services (ps -ef) iPhone runs simultaneously at any given time.

What the media perceives as a lack of multitasking is the fact that the iPhone’s application launcher (SpringBoard) forces an app to exit before showing an home screen where you can launch another app. In doing so it merely makes sure that the apps do not eat up your battery like termites, while not interacting with the user.

So, ignore all the fuss and just know that iPhone OS 4.0 will not force an app to exit before lauching another one. That is it.